The present invention relates to a patient care apparatus and, more particularly, to an infant care apparatus of the type that provides a support or bed for the infant as well as a means of warming the infant to aid in the wellbeing of that infant.
In the use of infant warmers, there is generally a support underlying the infant as well as some overhead heater, generally a radiant heater, that produces warmth to the infant by directing a pattern of infrared energy toward that infant. As a normal component or function of such infant warmers, there are various alarms that produce an audible sound when one of the alarm conditions has been sensed. With the presence of such audible alarms, there is normally also an alarm silence button or switch that allows the care provider to temporarily silence the alarm, it only being of importance with some alarms that the care provider be aware of the existence of an alarm condition and the care provider then can have the option of merely silencing the alarm after being adequately warned of the alarm condition. The activation of the alarm silence button also normally resets a timer within the patient care apparatus so that the audible alarm cannot be permanently silenced but will again cause an audible sound if the alarm condition persists unabated so that the care provider must again take some positive step to push the alarm silence button to cease that audible sound.
As an example, one typical alarm in the use of infant warmers is a pre-heat alarm and concerns the amount of energy supplied to the heater during a warm-up period. Generally, the care provider, in the manual mode of an infant warmer, can manually select from 0 to 100 percent of the rated capacity of the heater during the warm up period. If the care provider sets the heater at above 25 percent, there will be an alarm after a predetermined period of elapsed time at that setting, typically about 15 minutes, at which point the audible alarm sounds as a warning to the care provider. Whatever the source of the alarm, it is normally necessary for the caregiver to manually push the alarm silence button on or near the particular apparatus to silence that alarm so as to take some action in response to the alarm condition or to merely note the existence of the alarm condition and silence that audible sound.
In many instances, the care provider is, at that time, attending to the mother to be in the same room and is operating in a sterile environment, that is, the care provider is wearing gloves that must be maintained in a sterile condition. In such instances, the sterile environment is maintained by the caregiver wearing a gown and with gloves that overlap the sleeves of the gown so that almost the entire upper body of the caregiver is maintained in sterile conditions. Thus, any touching of an alarm silence button by any portion of the caregivers upper body, that is, any portion of the body above the waist, can destroy the sterility of the caregiver and it is, of course, therefore, fully expected, and indeed required, that a considerable portion of the caregiver""s body be maintained in the sterile conditions.
Accordingly, when the audible alarm sounds on the infant warmer, it becomes necessary for the care provider to silence the alarm to prevent the annoyance of a continuous audible alarm and therefore must remove the sterile gloves, push the alarm silence switch or button, and then re-glove to return to attending to the patient then in the birthing process or undergoing some other procedure requiring the sterile conditions. The normal alarm silence button thereby silences the audible alarm, however, it also resets an alarm clock such that the same alarm will again be activated within that reset predetermined time period and the audible alarm will again sound such that the care provider must go through the same procedure again. As such, once silenced, the caregiver is likely to have to repeat the procedure again to maintain that alarm silence.
As can be seen, the overall procedure of carrying out the alarm silence is therefore burdensome, annoying and constitutes an interruption in the continual care that is needed during a rather critical time period in providing care to the patient giving birth. Alternatively, other alarms may be similarly affected, for example there is also normally an alarm that activates an audible sound in the event the skin temperature of the infant is higher or lower by a certain temperature range of a control temperature, that is, the alarm may sound in the event the temperature of the infant is above or below the control temperature by 1 degree Centigrade. Such alarms can therefore activate when the care provider is actually busy working on the infant and, again, the care provider has to remove the gloves that are under sterile conditions, manually push the alarm silence button on the infant warmer control panel and then re-glove to continue with the particular procedure on the infant.
Other bothersome scenarios are, of course, possible such as when the care provider is in a room with a number of infant warmers and is actively carrying out a procedure on an infant when an audible alarm is activated on one of the other infant warmers in that room. That care provider thus has to go over to the other infant warmer and proceed with the steps of removing gloves, manually pushing the alarm silence button and then re-gloving to return to the infant to continue attending to the infant. As also can be seen the problem is not limited to the use of an infant warmer, but is equally applicable to other types and kinds of infant equipment or adult equipment, medical monitors and the like, that is, to a wide variety of environments where a care provider is carrying out some procedure on a patient under sterile conditions.
There is, therefore, clearly a need for some type of alarm silence switch that can be activated to silence an audible alarm that does not require a person to use ones hand or hands to physically push a button or switch in order to carry out that function.
Accordingly, the present invention relates to a alarm silence switch that can be activated by means other than by using ones hands so that the care provider, in any relevant environment, can silence the audible alarm of the particular piece of apparatus and reset the alarm time without the need to remove gloves and to re-glove after the alarm silence function has been carried out. The present invention will be described with respect to an infant warmer, however, it can be seen that the present invention can be used in other infant care equipment or adult care equipment, such as medical monitors and to any environment where the care provider is gloved and working in a sterile surrounding so that the need for the hereinbefore described process of de-gloving and re-gloving is necessary.
In the present invention, therefore, there is provided a means to carry out the normal alarm silence function without actually using the hands of a person, or for that matter, any portion of the caregivers body above the waist, to activate a button or switch and, therefore, is a means wherein the care provider can silence the alarm without the need to remove gloves and go through the entire process of re-gloving and interrupting whatever procedure is being undertaken at the time by that care provider.
In carrying out the present invention, in one embodiment there is a non-contact switch or means to silence the alarm and may include various different types of switches to carry out that purpose. For example, the present invention may utilize a proximity switch or sensor that can be activated by merely passing ones hand in front of or in close proximity to the sensor located on the piece of medical apparatus. Such proximity sensors are commonly available and may operate on the basis of optical sensing, radar, temperature detection or some other technology that is capable of sensing the close proximity of a person""s hand to the sensor. By such sensing, therefore, the care provider can simply wave in front of the sensor to activate the alarm silence function without removing gloves from that hand while maintaining the sterile conditions of the hands.
Other technologies include the use of an air pressure or air flow sensor that detects a change in air pressure or flow created by the care provider blowing into the sensor at an area of the control panel i.e. activated by the motion of air or even a voice activated sensor that can be activated by the recognition of a word, such as xe2x80x9csilencexe2x80x9d or to a human voice exceeding a certain threshold such that the care provider can simply use verbal commands or sounds to activate the alarm silence function without the use of the hands.
As another embodiment, there is a foot activated alarm silence switch that can be physically touched by the foot of the care provider so as to silence the audible alarm without having to compromise the sterile conditions of the care provider in the region of the upper body, that is, above the waist of that care provider.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention.